Domestically, the White House turns to climate change

posted at 10:41 am on May 5, 2014 by Bruce McQuain

After years of putting other policy priorities first — and dismaying many liberal allies in the process — Obama is now getting into the weeds on climate change and considers it one of the key components of his legacy, according to aides and advisers.

And while he routinely brings up climate change in closed-door meetings with world leaders, according to his aides, he also discusses it in his private life, talking about global warming’s implications with his teenage daughters.

As usual, he intends to proceed by using executive power, whether or not the people or their representatives agree and without any consideration of the cost to the consumer. All in the face of mounting evidence that the supposed crisis of CO2 is a non-crisis.

According to the WaPo, this intention to address “climate change” was spurred by Obama viewing satellite pictures of the California mountain snow pack:

Antarctic sea ice continues to set new records, with extent in April at the highest since measurements began in 1979.

Remember, Antarctic and Arctic sea ice melts were to be the harbingers of doom. In fact, the Arctic was supposed to be ice free last year according to the perpetually wrong alarmists. Instead we saw record sea ice there as well. Factor in the fact that there has been no global warming for over 17 years and one has to ask why this, in the face of a badly performing economy and over 92 million Americans being out of work, is suddenly to become a priority for the White House? As one editorialist puts it:

The problem is, it’s just so hard to be an alarmist these days. Temperatures aren’t rising, U.S. CO2 emissions are down, and now it turns out that peak oil won’t peak. What’s a scare-monger to do?

The answer is keep on trying to gin up the alarm to satisfy the true-believers who are an important political constituency of the Democrats. And it is becoming clearer every day that the Democrats are going to need all of their constituencies to even have a ghost of a chance in the November mid-terms. To this point, the leftist environmental movement hasn’t been too happy with the Obama administration and it certainly wants more drastic action to be taken to curb the use of fossil fuel. So it’s time to shore up their support:

Environmentalists such as Democratic donor and billionaire Tom Steyer want him to veto the Keystone pipeline and wean the nation from natural gas.

Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke said of the administration: “We have to increasingly get them to acknowledge that there has to be a major transformation away from fossil fuels.”

That desire the Natural Resources Defense Council voices has resulted in such things as the “war on coal” and the reduction in production of oil on federal lands and off our coasts. It has also meant slow walking the permit process as well as holding the Keystone Pipeline hostage to presidential politics.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the plans are not final, said Obama has made it clear that he considers climate change a priority and is less politically constrained now that he no longer faces reelection.

Meanwhile the public views the issue as a low priority if a priority at all, given jobs and economic problems. Yet Obama persists. Elections are in the offing, and if there is one thing he has at least a semblance of competence in, it’s getting elected (or helping others do so). So all the high flying rhetoric aside, this is about votes, this is about elections and this is about trying to preserve at least one Democratic chamber in Congress for the last two years of his presidency. It is one of many such moves he’ll be attempting in the coming months. But make no mistake — this isn’t about the environment or his legacy, it’s about politics.

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he also discusses it in his private life, talking about global warming’s implications with his teenage daughters

How nice. I guess they ride bikes or walk to school, and the whole family are now vegetarians and the Mooch separates all the recyclables herself and they don’t fly to Cancun or Aspen for spring break. What a crock.

In all seriousness though, if it was “global warming” and not weather, why did the lower 48 get beat like a red headed step child this past winter, and large parts of where I am and Canada (and down into California), not get crap, and we are probably going to have a drought (if not already). Wind = weather. Sorry Lower 48, you got the winter we were suppose to get on the west coast and northern hemisphere.

Is this another one of the Prez’s short-attention-span pivots? Where he gets into another issue that nobody really cares about … momentarily? Where he wastes time, effort, tax-payer money, political capital … for some fringe cause? For the guy who’s supposed to be “the smartest guy in the room, you’d think he’d read up on both sides of this issue & realize that this is not “settled” science.

And while he routinely brings up climate change in closed-door meetings with world leaders, according to his aides, he also discusses it in his private life, talking about global warming’s implications with his teenage daughters.

If it were about Politics he’d get more steam out of fixing the economy, derailinig Obamacare, and putting a stop to his crazy expensive vacations. Putting global warming on the top of the list during a frigid winter and rather cold start to spring… I don’t see this bringing in more votes than it costs.

The satellite images viewed by President Obama before a meeting with eight Western governors were stark, showing how snowpack in California’s mountains had shrunk by 86 percent in a single year.

Why is it only California that is having this trouble every other place is not. Maybe its because the Dems have taken all the Oout of H2O by there dumb ideas. Or maybe mother nature is hoping that it will dry up and fall into the ocean

After years of putting other policy priorities first — and dismaying many liberal allies in the process — Obama is now getting into the weeds on climate change and considers it one of the key components of his legacy, according to aides and advisers.

He’s been in the weeds, and smoking weed, for 5-1/2 years. Maybe he’ll get poison ivy.

He is using his executive authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other sources, and is moving ahead with stricter fuel-efficiency standards for the heaviest trucks.

What will he do? Shut down the power plants? How will his Greenie friends charge up their Chevy Volts?

showing how snowpack in California’s mountains had shrunk by 86 percent in a single year.

Which is less than the percentage increase in the snowpack over Atlanta, and Washington DC.

Hey Barry O, why don’t you lead by example? Next time it snows in Washington DC, don’t send those diesel-belching plows down PA Ave, and ride your bike to work. On your next trip to South Korea, row across the Pacific.

Meanwhile, Russia invades Ukraine. Syria continues it’s gassing ways. Iran gets nuclear. Pakistan ISI wants to blow up U.S. embassy in India, and China threatens it’s neighbors. War drums all over the world and our President wants a serious meeting about climate change? The climate has been changing for a billion years or more Mr. President!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday. It was on this day — I guess cinco means five — that the French looked out over Mexico and thought, “Nah” — thus giving birth to the greatest Mexican military victory in history.

And while he routinely brings up climate change in closed-door meetings with world leaders, according to his aides, he also discusses it in his private life, talking about global warming’s implications with his teenage daughters.

That notwithstanding, this steaming pile of coming ice age . global warmingclimate change alarmism is being sold as/considered as “cool”.

By nature, people want to contribute to making the world a better place. Unfortunately for them, they have absolutely no effect on the world’s climate. Neither does the industrialized world. The effect of our activity pales by comparison to natural processes.

It’s hubris to believe otherwise. Our industrial output and cow farts are in the noise when compared to volcanic emissions.

Too bad we have an uphill battle fighting against those indoctrinated by the left.

Climate Change mentality really makes so much sense now especially after Russia’s Annexation of the Crimea and Europe’s inability to do what’s right considering their almost addict like dependence on Russia’s oil & gas line that runs through Ukraine.

Makes even more sense to continue to oppose either through draconian regulations or one of the boy prince’s (aka President Obama) executive orders domestic natural resources. Considering from Fracking to shale to off shore oil drilling to drilling in Anwar this nation has more natural resources than the middle east and south America combined (too bad we couldn’t use than to wean Europe’s addiction to Russian fuel).

Exit Question: How much billionaire Tom Steyer have invested in current forms of transportation other than the proposed Keystone Pipeline and how much will he lose if it is finally approved? Kind of like Warren Buffet’s investment in rail which is why he’s against it.

The satellite images viewed by President Obama before a meeting with eight Western governors were stark, showing how snowpack in California’s mountains had shrunk by 86 percent in a single year.

Oh yeah?

If we are going to choose one photo and location to use to pivot to Global Warming it can be countered with one example of the opposite. Do we seriously have a President who makes broad based policy decisions that can affect the entire economy based off of anecdotal evidence? Gotta earn that Steyer money I guess.

The reason is the unusually late ice cover that remains on the Great Lakes. Heading into May, the Great Lakes combined remain 26% ice-covered, with Lake Superior still more than half-blanketed in ice. By comparison, at this time last spring the lakes were less than 2% covered with ice.

1. Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.1 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter of 2014, following the 3.4 percent annual pace in the second half of 2013. Looking at the various components of GDP, consumer spending grew at a rapid pace, mainly reflecting sharp increases in health care and utilities consumption, while the other elements of consumer spending on net rose only slightly. Consumer spending on food services and accommodations fell for the first time in four years, one of several components that was likely affected by unusually severe winter weather. Exports and inventory investment, two particularly volatile components of GDP, also subtracted from growth.

2. The first quarter of 2014 was marked by unusually severe winter weather, including record cold temperatures and snowstorms, which explains part of the difference in GDP growth relative to previous quarters. The left chart shows the quarterly deviation in heating degree days from its average for the same quarter over the previous five years. By this measure, the first quarter of 2014 was the third most unusually cold quarter over the last sixty years, behind only the first quarter of 1978 and the fourth quarter of 1976. In addition, there were four storms in the first quarter that rated on the Northeast Snowfall Impact Scale (NESIS). The right chart shows that no quarter going back to 1956 had more than three such storms.

3. Within the first quarter, several key indicators were lower in January and/or February before rebounding strongly in March, suggesting that the severe weather had a disruptive effect that only began to abate at the end of the quarter. Light vehicle sales, average weekly hours, core retail and food service sales, and core capital goods shipments dipped starting in December and/or January before bouncing back in March, and so were left little changed for the quarter as a whole. One outside group has estimated that the elevated snowfall in the first quarter slowed the annual rate of GDP growth by 1.4 percentage points, with all of that lost activity to be made up in the second quarter.

Additionally, it is worth noting that consumer spending on utilities surged more than 38 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter, the largest increase on record (with data back to 1959). While this weather-related jump in utilities spending added to GDP growth, it was likely more than offset by the constraining effect of severe weather on other categories, including other components of consumer spending (like autos, household furnishings, and restaurants), some components of private and public fixed investment, and exports.

You notice the most people that are pushing climate change are the rich.

The people it hurts the most are poor and middle class.

When Mr. Steyer uses only wind and solar to power all his vehicles, home, travels only in such vehicles and doesn’t acquire anything not transported by such vehicles, maybe I might listen to him and all the other fruitcakes. Until then, he needs to shut up.

The satellite images viewed by President Obama before a meeting with eight Western governors were stark, showing how snowpack in California’s mountains had shrunk by 86 percent in a single year.

It’s called a ‘drought’ — It didn’t rain this past summer or fall in California, either, because of the upper atmosphere weather patterns, which sent most of the precipitation to the north and inundated other parts of the country with snow during this past winter.

But the White House is hoping to turn a one-year weather situation into an alleged permanent condition, and are counting on the minds of low-info voters thinking droughts can’t happen in colder, snowy areas and only occur where there’s desert, giant cactus and coyotes chasing road runners.

The dork-in-chief doesn’t quite strike me as an imagery analyst. Maybe one of the “dudes” in the White House was taking a short course on giving persuasive presentations and slanted his supporting material to hoodwink the hoodlum.

The Administration keeps using “climate change” but I think we all know that’s a more acceptable term for “global warming”. Hell, a few years ago, I cancelled my subscription to ‘National Geographic’ for their slavish worship of the concept of ‘global warming’.

But, I have to admit the Administration may actually be on to something. I have been daily measuring the high and low temperatures since Jan 1, 2014 and I have noticed a warming trend. Of course it is still much too early to tell but, so far at least, May is definitely warmer than January!

The progressive left does not deal with such things as real world injustice like that. They work in the theoretical rhealm where 100% guilt can be assigned wherever needed for political effect,where any contradictory evidence can simply be ignored where all their pipe dreams are presumed to be easily implemented and 100% effective, where all disagreement has no legitimate basis and any shortfall in predicted outcomes can be explained by sabotage from the political undesirables.

Besides Dude, the kidnapping, rape, forced conversion and sale into slavery of these young school girls was like two weeks ago– are you kidding!

A fifth of all power-generating capacity in a grid serving 60 million people went suddenly offline, as coal piles froze, sensitive electrical equipment went haywire and utility operators had trouble finding enough natural gas to keep power plants running. The wholesale price of electricity skyrocketed to nearly $2 per kilowatt hour, more than 40 times the normal rate. The price hikes cascaded quickly down to consumers. Robert Thompson, who lives in the suburbs of Allentown, Pa., got a $1,250 bill for January

The electrical system’s duress was a direct result of the polar vortex, the cold air mass that settled over the nation. But it exposed a more fundamental problem. There is a growing fragility in the U.S. electricity system, experts warn, the result of the shutdown of coal-fired plants, reductions in nuclear power, a shift to more expensive renewable energy and natural gas pipeline constraints. The result is likely to be future price shocks. And they may not be temporary.

Why are you writing this as if they wouldn’t blame climate change for this?

blink on May 5, 2014 at 1:08 PM

The dichotomy of their arguments is what is failing them in terms of people actually buying into the propaganda.

Most people, even idiots, have a hard time believing that Global Warming is responsible for both lack of ice/snowfall and more ice/snowfall.

It is the equivalent of trying to sell ice to Eskimos.

The MSM may push the propaganda, but LIVs aren’t smart enough to grasp any sort of explanation as to how warming can cause freezing. Most of America just doesn’t buy it, which incidentally is why Obama has to take Executive action. There is no appetite in Congress for the US to commit national suicide.

“Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke said of the administration: ‘We have to increasingly get them to acknowledge that there has to be a major transformation away from fossil fuels.’” How?? It’s not really working that well for Germany…..

Factor in the fact that there has been no global warming for over 17 years…

It would be nice if that were indeed fact, but it is nothing more than rumor that is completely unsubstantiated by facts. Global warming continues undeterred by rumor.

Antarctic sea ice continues to set new records, with extent in April at the highest since measurements began in 1979.

So what? Looking at glacial ice and polar ice as an aggregate, the trend continues downward (and trends are what matter, not a summer here and a winter there). For example, Greenland is disgorging massive amounts of melt water. Glaciers are receding all over the planet, and Arctic ice trends steeply downward over the last couple of decades.

All in the face of mounting evidence that the supposed crisis of CO2 is a non-crisis.

What evidence, Mr. McQuain? Most all the data points in exactly the other direction from your fantasy.

In fact, the Arctic was supposed to be ice free last year according to the perpetually wrong alarmists.

More imagination at work, Mr. McQuain? Really? This year? What voices are you listening to?

Yet Obama persists.

Yes, Obama persists. Flying AF1 many thousands of miles to go on vacation and spewing massive amounts of GHG into the atmosphere, thereby helping to warm the planet more than just about any other single human on it. It’s hard to be credible when you set such a poor example, Mr. O.